Spring
by jadah allison
Summary: DG gets a crash course in dating, much to Glitch's 'disapproval.'


I started writing this a long time ago and just found it...decided it might be worth revising, so here it is. I don't know if they're completely in character, as I haven't seen Tin Man in a looooong time.

_i-ad incunabulis_

In the spring of her twentieth annual DG was the epitome of a brilliant rosebud, unfurling shyly to meet a world that could definitely have been concieved as icy before her homecoming. As much as he had tried to _un_know this fact, Glitch knew it painfully well [or perhaps it was Ambrose who had first recognized DG's growth, one could never be too sure.] She had come to him, eyes flecked through with the most breathtaking pinpoints of light [her pink cheeks were the setting sun traipsing across a pale landscape towards the endless shock of blue sky, and it made him feel like his bones were support beams that had just collapsed.] She began, "I don't think I've ever seen so many _eligable_ men-"

To which Glitch's reflexive answer was a subdued, _jealous_ snort. Her mouth twisted in a way that made him believe that she felt ashamed of what she had just revealed, and she gave him a playful smack on the arm. "As royal advisor, that's all the advice I'll give you on that subject, Doll," he stated matter-of-factly, then returned to his latest invention. It was easy to bury his aches and desires away among the neverending calculations, wrenches, gears and measurements. He pretended to still know what all of it meant. Things were just easier that way.

And of course, DG did as Glitch had subconciously known [and dreaded] she would. She plucked the most beautiful creature out of the crowd and made him her own. His hair was a white-gold coif paired with minty green ovals for eyes [DG once told him that she was reminded of mountains when she looked at the prince: cold and immovable. If only she knew that mountains actually were _not_ immovable. That they actually moved every second of every day, continuously becoming sharper and more angular.] However, the advisor found the prince's temperament to be self-righteous and most unbearable, and those eyes that DG liked so much to be weak-colored and very much _anti_-appealing.

It was hard for Glitch. For the next couple of months he found it easier to simply pretend his synapses were constantly malfunctioning. Later, he would find that he couldn't remember even one conversation, even one look that the two had shared.

It was only a matter of time before that minty prince got a little too fresh for DG [and a lot too fresh for Glitch.] You would think someone had died, the way she wept. "Princesses are role models, Glitch. They don't make bad decisions, and they definitely don't do _that_," she told him.

"You're a princess and you did," Glitch analyzed quietly. The way she sobbed harder made him ache with unbearable self-hatred.

_ii-ad honorem_

By her twenty-first annual DG's sweet petals were yellow and purple with bruises, yet she wilted on through what seemed to be a still very summery annual. Often Glitch would notice that what she once referred to as 'handsome', she now called 'idiotic.' More often than not she would simply scoff at the advances of men. All it took to snap her out of her broodiness was a pair of steely blue eyes. They sparked against each other like a knife against armor, violent and passionate and _sickening_.

'A dark prince from a dark place, who would probably end up in an equally dark place,' Glitch had called him. He knew by his contemptuous eyes, by his mouth as he whispered, "Beautiful, _mine_," against DG's flesh. Glitch hated how she let the prince prod her around, hand to waist, like a cow. He hated how the prince watched him so cautiously, his eyes poking and cutting constantly.

This time, Glitch was acutely aware of her love interest. _What a suave man_, he often thought, grim-faced, as he glimpsed a different dark haired beauty on the prince's arm [Glitch soon came to find out that the dark prince was fond of dark haired beauties.]

He wished with all his might that his rather inconvenient half-brain had the courtesy to simply banish that scene from existence, yet morning after morning it was the first and only thing he could think of. _Tell her, tell her,_ his footsteps cried as he paced down the bright, empty hallways. _Tell her, tell her,_ clicked and whirred the machines he struggled to understand. "It's none of my business," he tried to reason with them. However, reasoning didn't work well when it came to whispery footsteps and inanimate objects, and their urgent mantra morphed into malignant insults. _Cow-ard, cow-ard, _whispered the whole world to him until the pressure was so great that he screamed the truth to DG as she was in the middle of a sentence.

And she was inconsolable. Glitch didn't think that he had ever seen anyone so angry in his entire life. He couldn't get a word in edgewise between her ranting and raving. "I hate that stupid half-wit!" she screamed, and inwardly Glitch winced.

_iii-ad nauseam_

By her twenty-second annual, DG had become a very dark flower indeed. It seemed that she had completely skipped fall and quickly fallen prey to a very harsh winter. Everyone could feel the icy tongues of cynicism lapping at them in DG's presence. She didn't even look at people anymore, and Glitch could almost feel the wheels in her mind constantly turning everytime he glanced at her.

One moment that Glitch would never forget in a million years, even if his whole brain were removed and eradicated, was a horrific scene that took place in a market. Women whispered about her and it made Glitch _nervous_. It made him _angry_, it made him _hate _them, but what could he do? Embarrass DG by acting all motherhen-like? So he talked louder and jumbled all his words together in a way he hoped she thought was more endearing than odd.

She turned her face away from the bruised apple she was inspecting and towards him, and the look that permeated her eyes made his head empty of every single word he had ever wanted to say in his life. Gone were the cloudy blue sky eyes, and in their place were oceanic depths. Empty, dark, full of secrets. Full of large monsters. It replaced every word in his vocabulary, and he was left without a weapon to threaten her with as she flung the apple at the heads of the gossiping women. It hit the wall behind them with a sloppy _shmack_ and chunks of it spattered the general vacinity.

"DG! Are you crazy! Are you c-" he whispered frantically, shaking his head to stop the oncoming synapse misfire. It did no good, nearly everyone had turned to watch them intently. The three women were covered in apple-gore, gasping and openly malevolent towards the young princess. The old DG, the Kansas DG, stood before him.

"Tell me what you would've done better," she demanded of the frontlining busty blonde, who was immediately taken aback. She stuttered, obviously having not planned on DG defending herself. "Tell me what _you_ would have said, how _you_ would've acted."

"DG....." Glitch implored quietly, vehemently wishing she would rein herself in and let him pick up her pieces. Everyone was so quiet, and it made his stomach flop around in his torso like a suffocating fish.

"I saved all of you from being _abliterated_ and all you care about are the clothes I wear and the mistakes I make! So why don't you just go talk about your own lives, since you can do that because you're still breathing and not in captivity right now," she yelled. Her words burned in Glitch's ears. _Ungrateful._ It was branded into his empathetic heart. He felt a pang of uncertainty as she walked away from all of them, including him.

He watched her take her scolding from the Queen [literally, his eyes never left her face] with grace and a certain amount of disinterest. He watched as that level of disinterest followed her every moment of every day. The only thing she ever seemed content to focus on was the zipper of her jacket, which she seemed to have a strange amount of affection towards.

_iv-ad libitum_

Deeply was she submerged. Her conciousness was always so deep beneath her heavy ocean eyes now. Pick up her pieces was exactly what he wanted to do.

Glitch lay beside her in the garden infront of the palace despite the wintry cold of the earth beneath them. Somehow this seemed much more important. DG had told him that the stars were much prettier here because there were no lights to outshine them, and he was happy to indulge in anything that made her happy. It was well past midnight and unnaturally silent outside, two very improper things considering that the princess was with him.

"You know," she began, then paused.

"What is it, Doll?" Glitch asked quietly.

She shrugged. "If every star in the sky is a _universe_... Do you ever wonder what it would be like...out there?" she finished self-conciously.

He thought for a moment. "I'm happy right where I am," he told her, the basest part of him hoping she would catch the implication.

She looked at him, searching, then looked away again. "Part of me thought that this place would be completely different from...home, but I'm afraid it's exactly the same. I tried to find some 'princess magic' in me, but..." she finished with the shake of her head and a sigh.

"Doll," he breathed. "That part of us was ripped away when you 'died.' Niether of us are who we should be, but we can't help but be what we are now. Doll," he said again. He was leaning up to look at her. "You can't give up now."

For the first time in a long time, she really looked at him. Tentative tendrils of vulnerability crept from behind her too-large pupils. It was too intimate a moment, it was too much, and he couldn't stop the gravitational pull of his universe towards hers. Glitch himself was shocked at his own actions, and even more shocked at the pliable sweetness that was her mouth against his. White hot bursts of heat smoldered through his suddenly aching body, his core becoming a shuddering mass of red lava. He murmured his violent satisfaction against his princess's lips.

His charge, his Doll, his princess. He longed to tell her that this is the way it should have been the whole time, that she could have _his_ entire universe if she wished it, but quickly forgot that sentence [along with how he would string any amount of words together to make a legible phrase. He was used to it by now.]

"Glitch?" she asked softly.

"Oh!" he yelped and jerked away. Had he imagined her consentual feelings? Had he just made the biggest mistake of his life? "I'm sorry! I-"

"Finally," she interrupted him with a shy smile. "I was beginning to think this was one-sided."

"_Oh._"

It seemed that spring had finally come again, much to Glitch's delight.

_latin translations:_

_ad incunabulis-"from the beginning"_

_ad honorem-"just for the honor"_

_ad nauseam-"till you're sick of it"_

_ad libitum-"as you wish"_

I'd really appreciate it if you guys would _critique_ my work, tell me everything that's right and wrong with it. I want to know how to get better!!


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